Petit Le Mans
October 6, 2001

The final race of the 2001 ALMS season, the 10 Hour/ 1,000 Mile Petit Le Mans, held at the Road Atlanta race course, on October 6th, provided the large crowd in attendance, as well as the national television audience with a number of truly memorable and exciting moments!

To begin with, driver Didier de Radigues, this time, on the Dick Barbour Racing team’s “home track”, once again claimed the pole in the LMP-675 class with a qualifying time of 1:14.579.

The #57 car, piloted by Milka Duno, John Graham and Scott Maxwell, held on throughout the grueling ten hours and captured a dramatic first class finish.
Equally important was the exceptional display of “true grit” driving put on by Didier de Radiques, Bruno Lambert and Earl Goddard in the #5 Barbour car that was sidelined due to mechanical difficulties for extended periods of time during the race. Once back on the track, with all of the “chips down”, Didier proceeded to turn in the fastest lap (1:16.004) in class and captured third place in a most spectacular fashion, considering the difficulties that the crew of the #5 car had to overcome in order to finish the race. The car’s third place finish turned out to be pivotal, in that it enabled the Dick Barbour Racing team to accumulate the required number of competition points necessary to claim both the ALMS and ELMS championships, simultaneously!
To add “icing to the cake”, Didier, Milka Duno and John Graham placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively, in the 2001 ALMS/LMP-675 Drivers Championship, a just reward for a job well done by all!